The departure of Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich left a void in the Liverpool squad. <\/p>\n
The Premier League champions needed a multifunctional wide player to replace their former No7. Even prior to his move to the Bundesliga champions, the Reds had been linked with players who fit that particular profile.<\/p>\n
Malick Fofana<\/a><\/strong> of Lyon was reportedly on the Merseyside club\u2019s radar and viewed as an opportunity given the Ligue 1 side\u2019s financial troubles. <\/p>\n Rodrygo<\/a><\/strong>, having seemingly been shunned by new Real Madrid boss Xabi Alonso, was also believed to be a target for Liverpool. After all, Michael Edwards was keen to sign the Brazilian as a teenager when he was catching the eye for Santos in his homeland. <\/p>\n Anthony Gordon<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s name was mentioned too after the Scouser was almost signed by his boyhood club last summer. At the time, Newcastle were prepared to sacrifice the England international to ease PSR concerns. <\/p>\n He remained at St James\u2019 Park but the lingering feeling has always been he would, eventually, call Anfield home and now felt like the perfect storm for that to happen. <\/p>\n We\u2019re now closing on a week since Diaz swapped Liverpool for Munich and there haven\u2019t been many, if any, links to wide players. In fact, since his departure, the Reds have made a \u00a3110million bid to sign Alexander Isak<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n The club\u2019s sole focus right now is firmly on the Newcastle forward. If the Magpies are able to sign Benjamin Sesko<\/a><\/strong>, the expectation is that a new, improved bid will be made for the Sweden international. <\/p>\n We don\u2019t know what else Liverpool will do in the market if Isak is or isn\u2019t signed.<\/p>\n As things stand though, it appears Arne Slot is heading into the 2025\/26 season with just one senior option on the left flank in Cody Gakpo<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n Darwin Nunez<\/a><\/strong> is a viable option on the left but he looks set to move to Saudi Arabia with Al Hilal eager to add the former Benfica man to their ranks. <\/p>\n Federico Chiesa<\/a><\/strong> is also expected to leave the club with a return to Italy on the agenda. And the tragic loss of Diogo Jota significantly weakened Liverpool\u2019s attacking options. <\/p>\n It has been theorised that the emergence of Rio Ngumoha<\/a><\/strong> has changed the club\u2019s plans in the transfer market. The former Chelsea academy starlet has been a revelation in pre-season and he capped it off with an unbelievable finish against Athletic Club in the final friendly of the summer. <\/p>\n That might\u2019ve played a part in Liverpool\u2019s reluctance to go shopping for a left-winger. <\/p>\n Ngumoha will, of course, rack up minutes in the first-team this season. However, the likelihood is that the arrival of Hugo Ekitike<\/a><\/strong> is what altered the plans of the Premier League champions. <\/p>\n The 23-year-old caught the eye for Eintracht Frankfurt last term. Firstly while playing alongside Omar Marmoush<\/a><\/strong> before stepping up to be the team\u2019s main man following the sale of the Egypt international to Manchester City in January. <\/p>\n Ekitike netted 15 times and chipped in with eight assists in the Bundesliga. He\u2019s a versatile centre-forward, able to lead the line or play alongside a strike partner. <\/p>\n But the \u00a369million summer signing has more to his game. Paul Joyce of The Times hinted at this after the Frenchman\u2019s arrival, stating in a report that Slot \u201cviews the player as a multi-functional centre-forward who, while primarily playing as a No. 9, can also operate wide or perform as a second striker.\u201d<\/p>\n What is often overlooked when assessing the 6ft3 forward is the fact Ekitike played on the left side of the attack during his time with Reims. And his strengths do align with that of a wide player. <\/p>\n For example, he had obscene carry and dribbling numbers in the Bundesliga. <\/p>\n There’s actually a bit of Gakpo to his game. <\/p>\n If he adds a bit of muscle, he could probably pass for a left-winger. He’s got the speed and the dribbling ability. If you completely ignore his shot metrics and focus on everything else, you could probably be forgiven for thinking he’s a wide player.<\/p>\n We’ll use Gakpo here as an example. <\/p>\n The Dutchman attempted three dribbles per 90 in the Premier League last term and 3.13 progressive carries, per FBref. He also had 1.84 carries into the penalty area. The former PSV man averaged 3.83 shot creating actions too in the English top-flight.<\/p>\n Ekitike, playing different roles for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga, averaged 4.27 attempted dribbles, 3.04 progressive carries and 1.98 carries into the final third. He also finished the campaign with 3.5 shot-creating actions in the top tier of Germany. <\/p>\n The output isn’t too dissimilar, is it? There are obvious caveats to this, such as the one-time PSG man playing a different role in a different league, but the profile is similar. <\/p>\n He showcased his ball carrying ability in the win over Athletic Club<\/a><\/strong> when setting up the opener. <\/p>\n Instead of attacking the space in the centre of the pitch, something you might’ve expected him to as the centre-forward, he held his position on the left and then latched onto a Dominik Szoboszlai<\/a><\/strong> pass. <\/p>\n He could\u2019ve looked to cut back inside but instead powered past an opponent, using his weaker left side, before putting a cross into the box using his left foot. This ball found the feet of Mohamed Salah<\/a><\/strong> who fired home. <\/p>\n It was one of two chances created by Ekitike during the 57 minutes he was on the pitch. Only Salah (six) carved out more opportunities at Anfield against the LaLiga side. <\/p>\n We\u2019re yet to see Ekitike start on the left but the fact he\u2019s so comfortable in the wide channels and had the desire to attack the spaces, all while running in behind, feeds into the idea that he could be a left-sided attacker, at times. <\/p>\n And this then gives Liverpool the depth needed on that side of the pitch while also explaining exactly why the champions are prepared to shatter the British transfer record to sign Isak. <\/p>\n Safer gambling<\/p>\n We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.<\/p>\n If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline \/ GamCare<\/a><\/strong> on 0808 8020 133.<\/p>\n Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org<\/a><\/strong> and gamblingtherapy.org<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The departure of Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich left a void in the Liverpool squad. The Premier League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-325187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114987537790683073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}